Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Often when religion comes up in conversation I try to soft pedal where I went to church and why I ran away from it. I generally describe the church without giving the name. So I tell folks that, 'I went to a church whose doctrine was based on an idea that they had a monopoly on God and that all of the other denominations were on a well buttered slide into eternal hell.' Invariably! The person would say, 'Ah-Ha! You went to the Church of Christ!' It's a freakin' scream. How many of you had this happen?

You are right, the oddities of the cofc are very well known.

no-cults-4-me wrote:Often when religion comes up in conversation I try to soft pedal where I went to church and why I ran away from it. I generally describe the church without giving the name. So I tell folks that, 'I went to a church whose doctrine was based on an idea that they had a monopoly on God and that all of the other denominations were on a well buttered slide into eternal hell.' Invariably! The person would say, 'Ah-Ha! You went to the Church of Christ!' It's a freakin' scream. How many of you had this happen?

I can't remember but I think it's happened a couple of times. But people from other parts of the world have never heard of C of C. I encounter people from everywhere these days. I have a lot of friends from other countries and they aren't even familiar with all the US church denominations.

faithfyl wrote:

no-cults-4-me wrote:Often when religion comes up in conversation I try to soft pedal where I went to church and why I ran away from it. I generally describe the church without giving the name. So I tell folks that, 'I went to a church whose doctrine was based on an idea that they had a monopoly on God and that all of the other denominations were on a well buttered slide into eternal hell.' Invariably! The person would say, 'Ah-Ha! You went to the Church of Christ!' It's a freakin' scream. How many of you had this happen?

I can't remember but I think it's happened a couple of times. But people from other parts of the world have never heard of C of C. I encounter people from everywhere these days. I have a lot of friends from other countries and they aren't even familiar with all the US church denominations.

That's right, faithfyl. The CoC in reality is just one of the many cults that are unique to American Christianity.

It has happened to me plenty of times, especially in places like Tennessee.

Only in the Southeast.
Out west, nobody has ever heard of the CoC. It EXISTS, but in such low numbers that 90% of the people have never heard of it. When you mention some of the usual highlights (no instruments, only one with 'truth', etc) mostly they look at you like you are nuts or like they barely believe such a thing exists.

This is in areas where Roman Catholicism, LDS and Baptists are typical, and Lutherans and Presbyterians are around, but not numerous.

I straight out tell people that I was raised in the Church of Christ. I have been told by people more than once: "That's a works based religion." This is because they are always trying to baptize. For the CoC baptism is salvation. In other churches salvation is by faith. Baptisms are held periodically not immediately. You can see the fear basis here in the CoC.

When I told people I grew up in the CoC I got one of two responses 95% of the time. Either they had never heard of it, or they would go, “Oh yeah, you all thought you were the only ones going to heaven, right?”

It’s very telling that most people that know of the CoC knows that they are totally arrogant and think they’re the only ones that got it right. With that reputation, the CoC still acts like they don’t know why their churches are shrinking and gradually dying off.